An LGBTQ media advocacy organization lambasted President Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday that he was ordering a ban on the service of transgender people in the U.S. military.
Trump’s decision reversed an Obama-era policy to allow service from openly transgender soldiers, and followed what was a six-month delay of that policy announced by Defense Secretary James Mattis on June 30.
“President Trump today issued a direct attack on transgender Americans, and his administration will stop at nothing to implement its anti-LGBTQ ideology within our government – even if it means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation,” the group’s president and CEO, Kate Ellis, said in a statement. “Today further exposed President Trump’s overall goal to erase LGBTQ Americans from this nation. Trump has never been a friend to LGBTQ Americans, and this action couldn’t make that any more clear.”
The organization’s statement continued: “Today’s anti-LGBTQ announcement summarizes the full-scale attack on LGBTQ Americans by the Trump Administration. Since President Trump’s inauguration, the administration has stopped at nothing to erase LGBTQ acceptance from the federal government.”